2021 FEBRUARY 28 VK NATIONAL NEWS BROADCAST ON VK1WIA ------------------------------------------------------------* THE BEST NEWS YOU'LL GET ALL WEEK THIS LINK IS A VIDEO VERSION OF NEWS COMPILED BY VK5BD BEVAN tinyurl.com/WIA-News-Videos ------------------------------------------------------------* NATIONAL NEWS FOR WEEK COMMENCING FEBRUARY 28 2021 IN OUR 26th YEAR OF NON STOP NEWS AUSTRALIAN GOVERNMENT DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH PORTAL Coronavirus (COVID-19) latest news, key facts and figures, contacts and answers to your questions. www.health.gov.au/ Channel 9 TV show "Under Investigation", to air at 2100 EADT on Monday 1 March concerns that story of the couple who vanished without trace a year ago, the male of the pair being Russell Hill VK3VZP. tinyurl.com/3jxt6mff It seems Robbie VK3EK was most likely the last person to speak to Russell. Also look for it on the 9NOW App. THIS & MORE IN THIS EDITION OF NEWS FROM THE WIRELESS INSTITUTE OF AUSTRALIA NO POLL AS YET That Poll on the thoughts of Members and Non Members we were told on the news would be up "next week", well, although not there yet, don't despair.. as President Greg now says.. "The poll will released soon following testing, if not already by the time of this broadcast." At the time of entering the studio toady we are in a way off to a great start with an election for 4 WIA Directors to join the incumbents in Oscar VK3TX, Philip VK2CPR and Lee VK3GK on the 2021 board. That parts great, BTW, nary a word from the WIA board this week on that very topic. HOWEVER WIA President Greg has popped in with word on that promised WIA poll. In last weeks broadcast, I spoke about the Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA) having recently issued a consultation document which details 3 licensing options concerning the future of Amateur Radio in Australia. The ACMAs preferred option is to transition to a Class Licence instead of the current apparatus licence this option effectively deregulates the radio amateur service. As promised last week, the WIA has now released its initial white paper with a detailed analysis of the benefits and risks of each proposed option which can be found now on the WIA website as a news item. The URL is www.wia.org.au/newsevents/news/2021/20210224-1/index.php I wish to sincerely thank the WIA consultation working group for their efforts in analysing the options and releasing the initial findings. The WIA is conducting a poll to seek feedback from our members as well as non-members. Your input to this poll will be assist the WIA in finalising a comprehensive and representative final submission to this consultation. Please refer to the analysis in our initial paper to properly inform your decisions in regard to the poll questions. Non-members who are licensed Australian amateurs can now register to receive the poll. WIA members please note that you DO NOT have to register to receive the poll, a link to the poll will be sent to you via MemNet email. Non-members can register by entering the URL: tinyurl.com/wiapoll into your internet browser. Again, I also ask that club presidents relay this registration information to their club members as soon as possible. It is important to understand the financial context of this consultation. The ACMA is subject to year on year budget cuts euphemistically called efficiency dividends which means that every year the ACMA have less resources. This impact is apparent in the progressive loss of engineering and scientific skills and also administrative resources from the regulator. The end result is the ACMA is seeking ways to reduce costs, which underlies the basis for their preferred Option C. The WIA acknowledges that Option A at this time does not meet the objectives of the ACMA. The WIA also notes that the ACMA states that they want to preserve the current operational utility for licensees. The WIA asserts that this objective has not been met within the ACMAs current proposals and that the Option C proposal, as presented, fails any sort of no disadvantage test. However, the WIA does believe that there are potential opportunities for either Apparatus or Class Licence types ( or potentially a hybrid thereof ) to deliver mutually beneficial outcomes for both the Australian amateur and amateur-satellite services and the ACMA, which would not disadvantage Australian Amateur Radio operators. Consequently, the final question on the WIA poll seeks your support for the WIA exploring options of a streamlined amateur service licensing system with the regulator that could deliver benefits to both the amateur service and the ACMA. The poll will released soon following testing, if not already by the time of this broadcast. In the meantime please review the WIA initial analysis. Until next time, this is Greg VK2GPK Although NOT from the WIA board direct to you the WIA listener we do have that list of prospects thanks to a Face Book group called WIA ELECTION 2021. Some, at least, candidates are members and have been posting but may have missed the idea floated that they provide you with short sharp audio bios in this the weekly news. The idea of the group is to provide a platform where we can ask "what they aim to bring to the table". That FaceBook group has had many a ham write in with suggestions, and some with observations. I'd be paying a LOT of attention to scribes such as Grant Willis, Peter Parker and Megan Woods all who write in a way which no one can take offense with BUT contains more than a grain of truth. Others delve back in history to the "Good the Bad and the Ugly' days and to the board members and prospective board members it does NOT matter if these observations are incorrect the IMPORTANT thing to take on board is is that they are PERCEPTIONS... and PERSPECTIONS need be addressed in a way which will move AR ahead in VK. To take an extract from this weeks "I've Been Thinking' QNEWS broadcast by VK4ZPP... "--speaking ideas in a way that you know is right but listening to others as if you are wrong. We need to say what we think and express interest in the other peoples ideas. this enables us to gain personal understanding which we might otherwise miss out on and more readily enable others to share their opinions. By letting people know you wish to improve things and that you wish them to give you input you start a process of cultural change--" WIA JOIN THE WIA tinyurl.com/yyj87b9y WIA BOARD MINUTES www.wia.org.au/joinwia/wia/minutes/ WIA BOARD NEWSLETTERS (older) Giving members to have a better awareness of Board activities. www.wia.org.au/joinwia/wia/newsletters/ Notice of Order of Names on Ballot paper for 2021 election of Directors. Date : 24 / 02 / 2021 Author : John Marshall - WIA Returning Officer In accordance with regulation 5(d) of the Wireless Institute of Australia Regulations for Postal Ballot of the election of Directors, on 15 February 2021 at 5 p.m. I conducted a draw of names to ascertain the order of appearance of names of nominees for director. The order of names appearing on the Ballot Paper shall be as follows: 1. Peter Schrader VK4EA 2. Peter Dernikos VK3FN 3. Greg Kelly VK2GPK (Current WIA President) 4. Steven Green VK2TSG 5. Peter Clee VK8ZZ (Current WIA Secretary) 6. Chris Dimitrijevic VK3FY 7. Scott Williams VK3KJ (Current WIA Board Member) 8. David Uzzell VK2DU Members are asked to vote for a maximum of 4 nominees by striking OUT the names of nominees not voted for, and returning their vote in the envelope provided before 27 March. Members are requested to attend to voting promptly due to apparent lengthy delays in postal delivery times. John Marshall WIA Returning Officer 2021 Election of Directors. All candidates have QRZ profiles of varying detail. Some have Twitter or YouTube as well. Most have email addresses on QRZ in case you wanted to contact them. Incumbent board members also have email addresses on the WIA website. Call signs and other info taken from the WIA ELECTION 2021 FaceBook group. tinyurl.com/bvpbejh3 NOW A REQUEST Would all, ALL, candidates for election 21 record and post a script, a 60/90 second audio version of your bio and what you bring to the board table. email to nationalnews@wia.org.au Lots of audio these days that we get has just been recorded using a mobile phone and quality is good. Looking forward to hearing YOU on da news soon. WIA NATIONAL NEWS AND OUR 3 W's. WEAR A MASK WASH YOUR HANDS WATCH YOUR DISTANCE (1.5 metres) www.health.gov.au/ ------------------------------------------------------------* INTERNATIONAL NEWS With thanks to IARU, RSGB, RAC, Southgate AR Club, ARRL, NZART, AMATEUR RADIO NEWSLINE & the World Wide sources of the WIA. RUSSIA Researchers in Moscow have developed a terahertz detector with unprecedented sensitivity and it shows promise in several areas of science. It is a development with what researchers consider has good prospects for radio astronomy, wireless communications, medical diagnostics and security systems and involves the use of something called quantum-mechanical tunnelling in graphene. ARNewsLine has more. The scientists have used it to create a highly sensitive terahertz detector. This solves the problem of inefficiency when mobile systems make use of extremely high frequencies beyond the traditional ones used today. Most transistors in use today in typical wireless receivers aren't fast enough to recharge at those frequencies: Wi-Fi receivers typically use signals at about 5 GHz and 5G mobile can transmit as high as 20 GHz - but going much higher usually poses a challenge. What researchers in Moscow and the University of Manchester have created is a device much more sensitive to those in commercial use now, which are based on semiconductors and superconductors. In this new development, the application of even very low voltage to the control contact or gate in a tunnelling transistor aligns energy levels of the source and channel, permitting current to flow. On the website Phys.Org, one of the Moscow researchers, Dennis Bandurin writes: [quote] "The current characteristics give rise to great hopes for the creation of fast and sensitive detectors for wireless communications." [endquote] GERMANY German radio hams tackling RF noise pollution DARC reports 35 Electrical Noise Area Monitoring Systems or ENAMS have been delivered and another 20 locations are sought as part of the effort to monitor interference from human-made noise on the HF bands. ENAMS is based on nationwide installed measuring stations that work as a network. With their help, the DARC can make scientifically reliable statements about interference levels on the frequencies. As is well known, the interference has increased in recent years, as various consumer devices drive up the noise level. www.darc.de/der-club/referate/emv/enams/ USA ARRL Board of Directors have considered a motion to offer a new plan that would pay the new but not-yet-implemented $35 FCC application fee for a limited number of new radio amateurs younger than age 18 who, at the time of testing, belonged to an ARRL Affiliated 501(c)(3) charitable organization and passed their tests through an ARRL VEC-sponsored exam session. The proposal called for reducing the VEC fee for these candidates to $5. The initial proposal came from ARRL South-eastern Division Director Mickey Baker, N4MB. Other Board members offered subsidiary motions. Supporters said the purpose behind the motion was to ameliorate the potential financial hardship the pending FCC application fee posed on certain minors applying for their first license, and to encourage new youth membership. Over neighbours objections, Shelburne operator gets the green light for ham radio towers. Shelburne, a suburb of Burlington the largest city in the state of Vermont lies north west of Boston but very close to Montral Canada Joel Banner Baird writing in Burlington Free Press says K1ZK's erection of two antenna towers on his rural property had been a source of contention with his neighbours for at least a year but now is approved by the Telecommunications Review Board. Compromises were struck along the way. The new structures will be measurably less of an eyesore. Originally conceived at 70 feet, Mangenello's ham radio project is getting off the ground with slim, guywire-supported towers that extend up to 60 foot. Shelburne limits such antennae's height to 35 feet. Now not only now does K1ZK boast the highest towers, he has held the highest class of amateur license since he was 17; The prospect of backup emergency communication offered by a local ham radio operator, as well as public education and research projects, eventually swayed the citizen-run review board. So did the Federal Communications Commission, which strongly suggests that local regulators make "reasonable accommodations" to amateur operators not just for practical reasons, but for "the amateur's unique ability to enhance international goodwill." ARGENTINE Former president of Argentina, Carlos Menem, ex-LU 1 SM, died on February 14. He was 90. Menem took office in 1989, serving for 10 years. Menem was active on the air in the 1980s and 1990s. He had earlier served as regional governor. Menem served as a senator from 2005 until 2019. According to the New York Times, Menem was hospitalized in December with kidney failure and had been put in a medically induced coma. ------------------------------------------------------------* HAM RADIO OPERATIONAL NEWS - IT'S A CONTACT SPORT -------------- the CQWW 160M SSB CONTEST is THIS weekend February 26 - 28. Your exchange is signal report and CQ Zone. American stations also exchange their State and Canadians their Province. Not only but also this weekend is the 'French' or 'REF' Contest running from 0600 UTC on the 27th to 1800 UTC on the 28th. Using SSB only on the 3.5 to 28MHz contest bands, the exchange is signal report and serial number but French stations also exchange their Department number or overseas prefix. -------------- Following weekend is International DX Phone Contest March 6 - 7 -------------- Commonwealth Contest (BERU) 13/14 March. --------------- WIA John Moyle Field Day 2021 March from UTC 0100 on Saturday 20 to 0059 Sunday 21nd. -------------- the CQ World Wide SSB WPX Contest March 27-28 the CQ World Wide CW WPX Contest May 29-30 -------------- April 25 AM / CW ANZAC Day, Mon 25th from 9am on 7125kHz AM. -------------- Harry Angel Sprint will be May First 2021. 10:00 - 11:46 UTC. -------------- The VK SHIRES June 12-13 in 2021 -------------- WINTER VHF-UHF Field Days - June 26 - 27 -------------- IARU HF World Championship July 10-11 -------------- TRANS TASMAN LOWBAND CONTEST Next contest - JUL 17 2021 - and has the aim of encouraging Low Band activity between VK and ZL on 160 80 and 40M using SSB, CW and RTTY OR PSK -------------- RD or Remembrance Day Contest will be August 14-15. -------------- ALARA CONTEST A Combined phone and CW run over 24 hours starting on Saturday 28th August at 0600 hours UTC finishing Sunday 29th August at 0559 hours UTC -------------- OCEANA CONTEST VOICE from 0800 UTC Saturday 2 October to 0800 UTC Sunday October 3 CW from 0800 UTC Saturday 9 October to 0800 UTC Sunday October 10 -------------- SPRING VHF - UHF FIELD DAYS November 27-28 -------------- December 4-5 160 Meter WW -------------- DECEMBER 11 - 12 10 Mtr World Wide -------------- -------------- DX WINDOW -------------- The WIA DX Awards program is pleased to announce a new annual Leader board competition for Standard class license holders starting 2021. Previously, Standard and Advanced licensees were combined in a single Leader board. Now, Standards have their own section. Overall winners in both Foundation and Standard sections each year, based on highest Score, will receive a complimentary crystal plaque courtesy of our Sponsor, Future Systems. The annual Leader board competition is designed as a friendly competition to determine how well you are performing compared to your peers. It is intended to encourage participation in DXing and hopefully inspire operators to improve their knowledge of propagation, try new techniques, build better stations, and improve their operating skills..in other words - to become a better DXer. The WIA DX Awards program is free to all members of the WIA and provides dozens of awards for newcomers through to advanced DXers and IOTA hunters. 73 from Graham Alston, VK3GA, WIA DX Awards Manager -------------- THE RAAF is flying high to celebrate it's 100 years on March 31.. The Royal Australian Airforce call signs to 'target' are VI 100 AF March 1 - 29 May VK 100 AF March 1 - 31 August (vk8nsb) -------------- FRANCE QRV is TM 18 AAW from Macon this weekend, February 28, in celebration of the 18th Antarctic Activity Week. QSL to home call F 8 DVD (arrl) -------------- Republic of Benin Ian, ZS 6 JSI, has been active recently as ZS6JSI slash TY from Parakou about 400km north from capital city in this West African country. He has been there since late January and is expected to be there for 6 months. Activity has been mainly on 20 meters FT8 An interesting sidenote is that Ian is operating from the Trans World Radio gospel broadcast station. (SouthGate) -------------- ROMANIA. Members of the Sport Club Pandurii Tirgu-Jiu are QRV with call YP 145 B from Tirgu-Jiu until Wednesday March 3 to celebrate the 145th anniversary of the birth of the great sculptor Constantin Brancusi. Activity is on the HF bands. QSL direct to YO 7 CKQ. (arrl) -------------- Austria special event The Cornish Radio Amateur Club's official International Marconi Day (IMD) Award program was cancelled due to the Corona virus situation. However, special callsign OE 21 M will operate between April 24-26th, 0000-2400z to commemorate the anniversary of Guglielmo Marconi's birthday (April 25th, 1874). QSL by the Bureau via OE1WHC. (SouthGate) -------------- JUST REPEATING New Northern Repeater VK7RUN channel 3 is currently active [ 431.850 input 438.850 output] in the Launceston CBD. Intended for the support of small form factor low power FM handhelds using shortened antenna, offering unsurpassed penetration into buildings and alleyways, it is within 2km of the CBD and serves to facilitate message passing between HAMs out and about during these socially distancing times, without the distractions of equipment drawing attention perhaps for the wrong reasons. Reception reports, questions or comments to VK7RUN@yahoo.com (sourced to vk7wi news) ------------------------------------------------------------* WORLD WIDE SPECIAL INTEREST GROUP NEWS ATV (Every pixel tells a story) - tinyurl.com/WIA-News-Videos THAT LINK IS A VIDEO VERSION OF THIS NEWS COMPILED BY VK5BD BEVAN One Megawatt of Peak AM Power - Saving the Voice of America Delano Relay DL-8 In 2007, the Voice of America ceased operations at the Delano Relay site in Central California. The site is destined to be bulldozed along with several relics of Collins Radio Company's Broadcast Communications Division. Now an ATV film is available from YouTube showing how the Collins Collectors Association, with assistance from the Antique Wireless Association, hatched a plan to retrieve one of the Collins 821A-1 250 KW Shortwave Transmitters from the site and place it on display for all to see. This vid presentation gives some history of VoA and the Delano site and follows the disassembly and relocation of Delano Relay DL-8. Dennis Kidder, W6DQ, is a retired Aerospace Engineer, having spent nearly 45 years in System Engineering. His career spanned many fields - from building and operating large scale sound systems, computer systems used to publish newspapers and control communications satellites, 4 years as the Chief Telecom Engineer during the construction of the New Hong Kong International Airport, and finally, air defence radar systems and networked radio communications systems used by the military. Amateur Radio has been a nearly life-long passion and you'll see his passion coming through in this video which is well worth a look. And if you enjoyed this video, as we did, consider becoming a member of the Antique Wireless Association www.youtube.com/watch?v=zrSrdArng10&feature=emb_logo Subscribe to the Antique Wireless Museum channel and you'll receive news of latest video uploads. antiquewireless.org/homepage/ (arrl) WW SPECIAL INTEREST GROUPS - FEMALES IN RADIO. Meet Merle Taylor: From teaching soldiers Morse code to running a farm, 97-year-old Nova Scotia woman shares secrets to a happy life in a full page article in saltwire.com Merle, or VE 1 VCI said that the Second World War opened her world up immensely. In 1942, when Merle was a mere 19, she saw an opportunity to apply to be a Wireless Operator in the Royal Canadian Air Force. She was hired and her main responsibility was Morse Code. On her first posting in Montreal, on her first day of work, she met the man who would become her husband, Fred Taylor. Shortly after, he was posted in Calgary, and to be closer to him, she took a posting in Saskatoon. Upon her arrival, she was informed she would be teaching pilots from Australia and New Zealand Morse Code. She had never taught a day in her life - and she was no expert on Morse Code at that time. She stepped up to the challenge, because the pilots, after being trained by her, would be headed off to war. Maybe, just maybe, one of our listeners relatives were actually trained by this Canadian 'Wonder Woman', Merle Taylor VE 1 VCI. WW SPECIAL INTEREST GROUPS - FINAL FRONTIER AMSAT-VK Secretary - secretary@amsat-vk.org As reported to Spaceweather.com Canadian radio amateur Scott Tilley, VE 7 TIL, has snagged another signal from deep space. His latest conquest has been to copy the signal from Chinas Tianwen-1 (pronounced tee-EN-ven) probe, which went into orbit around Mars on February 10. Tilley said that the probes X-band signal was loud and audible, however while the spacecraft did post its frequency with the ITU, it was too vague for precise tuning (X band is between 8 GHz and 12 GHz). VE 7 TIL has also picked up signals from NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, and the United Arab Emirates Hope probe, both orbiting Mars some 124 million miles away. He uses a homemade 60-centimeter dish and relies on software-defined radios (SDRs) to accomplish the task. (ARRL) A nanosatellite made at Tel Aviv University is now in orbit and measuring cosmic radiation following its successful launch by NASA. The satellite, called TAU-SAT1, is the first to be completely designed, developed, assembled and tested at an Israeli university. Its a big day for TAU, said Professor Price, head of TAUs Porter Department of Environmental Studies. We have now joined the civil space revolution [in which] not only giant companies with huge budgets and large teams of engineers can build and launch satellites. TAU completed the construction of TAU-SAT1 about 4 months ago and sent it for pre-flight testing at the Japanese space agency JAXA. About two weeks ago, the nanosatellite arrived at its final stop prior to lift off: Wallops Island in Virginia, where it caught a ride on a NASA resupply spacecraft destined for the International Space Station. (Jewish News Syndicate) WW SPECIAL INTEREST GROUPS --- INTERNET, THE HAMS DOMAIN. First-time caller, long time listener Aficionados of talk radio stations will be more than aware of that intro. Now comes ClubHouse. Remember when everyones toilet had a pile of magazines? Those magazine piles vanished with the advent of the mobile internet. Today, Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram are never-ending sources of content you can tune into in those spare moments, to occupy that part of your brain. Ben Zotto writing in marker.medium.com says Clubhouse the new darling of Silicon Valley and the extremely online set may have hit upon a rich vein of similar desperation, and if the company navigates it correctly, could become just as essential. The key for Clubhouse will be in honing its algorithms so that every time a listener opens the app they are presented with a conversation that is interesting to them. This is the area where podcasts miss the mark: it is amazing to have so much choice, but all too often that choice is paralysing; sometimes a lot of times! SO - FIRST TIME CALLER, LONG TIME LISTENER Clubhouse can ultimately transcend faux conferences and evolve into a never-ending stream of something more like talk radio that is guaranteed to be interesting to you. Most people dont want to chat, most of the time. Most people just want something to listen to while theyre doing other things. Clubhouse is an invitation-only audio-chat social networking app launched in April 2020 . In May 2020, it was valued at nearly $100 million. January 2021, the valuation reached $1 billion. Search for the Clubhouse app on google or your app store. WW SPECIAL INTEREST GROUPS --- IOTA iota-world.org OC 3, 7 and 737. Cocos Keeling Willis and Minami Torishima Islands. One may very well think we Hams have 'beaten' the Pandemic what with several international island events in the pipeline. Take, JG 8 NQJ, will once again be active as JG8NQJ/JD1 from Marcus Island, Minami Torishima (OC-0737) from mid-March. He will be at this weather station for about 3 months and wireless wise will be mainly on 17 meters. Northern Corridor Radio Group members from VK6 will be active as VK9CE from Cocos Keeling Islands (OC-003) between March 16-23rd. David, EB7DX, will manage the paper QSLs (direct and Bureau) Willis Island (OC-007) is set to be activated by the Hellenic Radio Association of Australia November 3, hopefully with call VK9W. WW SPECIAL INTEREST GROUPS --- RADIO AMATEUR OLD-TIMERS raotc.org.au Just ahead of RAOTC Guru Clive, VK6CSW again Id like to remind you of the source of my earlier story on the VoA and that Collins gear. If you enjoyed this video, as we did, consider becoming a member of the Antique Wireless Association www.youtube.com/watch?v=zrSrdArng10&feature=emb_logo Subscribe to the Antique Wireless Museum YouTube channel and you'll receive news of latest video uploads. antiquewireless.org/homepage/ (arrl) Hallo everyone. This is Clive VK6CSW reminding you that the Radio Amateurs Old Timers Club of Australias March bulletin goes to air tomorrow, Monday March 1st. This month as well as the latest club news, we have the following items for you: Travelling Brain Waves, read by Ian VK3JS, Mark Oliphant, Australian physicist and the part he played in the development of radar, also read by Ian VK3JS, plus Google - Rival Search Engine read by Bruce VK3UV. Everyone, RAOTC member and non-Member alike, is most welcome to listen to the program and join in the call backs afterwards. The monthly RAOTC bulletin is transmitted on a wide range of frequencies and modes including UHF and VHF FM, HF ssb, D-STAR, Digital Mobile Radio and EchoLink. Regular listeners will of course have their favourite time and frequency to tune in, but a full list of transmissions and times is on the RAOTC website www.raotc.org.au or simply Google RAOTC broadcasts. If none of the transmission times suit you, you can download the audio file at any time from today from the RAOTC website. If you do listen this way, a brief feedback comment would be appreciated. Members and Friends of the RAOTC in Perth are reminded that the next lunchtime meeting at the Bayswater Hotel is on Tuesday, March 9th. Once again, tune in tomorrow for the March RAOTC bulletin, and dont forget to join in the call backs afterwards. 73 from Clive VK6CSW. SPECIAL INTEREST GROUPS - VHF AND ABOVE (The Plumbers Delight) First VK7 to ZL Digital Record on 10GHz set by Rex VK7MO and Roger ZL3RC. Both stations ran 60 watts and Rex was using a 77 cm dish and Roger used a 113 cm Petal dish. The distance was 1960 km. For this 10 GHz record WSJT-X Q65-60D mode was used. The 60 indicates 60 second periods and the D represents a tone spacing of 13 Hz. (sourced to vk7wi news) SPECIAL INTEREST GROUPS - WORLD WIDE FLOA AND FAUNA (parks) PROGRAM wwffaustralia.com/ CROATIA, 9A. A call to 'weed out' from the bunch this year is 9A 10 FF Members of the Croatian Flora Fauna ARC are QRV with special event call 9A10FF during all of 2021 to celebrate the club's 10th anniversary. QSL via 9A2MF. TASMANIA, VK7. SOTA/WWFF PARKS GROUP A Summits On The Air / World Wide Flora and Fauna parks group is now meeting twice weekly, Mondays and Fridays 10.30 AM at Glebe Gardens Cafe, Henry Street, Launceston. For more information contact Al, VK7AN WW SPECIAL INTEREST GROUPS --- YOTA (Youngsters On The Air) youtube.com/channel/UClAapljf0VQ751sOgu2IzaA twitter.com/hamyota Plans remain 'up in the air' for the Youth on the Air or YOTA, Americas summer camp, tentatively set for July 11 16 in Ohio. We know that changes in the COVID-19 pandemic status between now and July will have an impact on our decision to host the camp, 2021 YOTA Americas Camp Director Neil Rapp, WB9VPG, said. At this time, we are still hopeful that hosting the camp safely will be possible. Should we not be able to host the camp, we will let everyone know with as much notice as possible and postpone it to 2022. Our plan is to make the final decision in the month of April. (arrl) ------------------------------------------------------------* 2021 Social Scene KEEP ONE WAVELENGTH AWAY AT 144 Megacycles #2MetersMatters Due to the COVID-19 situation, please check these events' direct for up-to-date status information and even without Covid dates have an uncanny knack of being changed at last moment. AUSTRALIAN GOVERNMENT DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH PORTAL Coronavirus (COVID-19) latest news, key facts and figures, contacts and answers to your questions. www.health.gov.au/ VK6 - Peel Amateur Radio Club Swap Meet March 6 at Mandurah Bowling Club (vk6faaz) VK4 - REDFEST 2021 April Ten (vk4tfn) VK2 - MayHam (Wyong Race Course) May 30 (vk2ji) VK5 - SERG convention Mt. Gambier June 12 / 13 (vk5bj) This John VK5DJ for the South East Radio Group. Yes, the SERG convention is on this June 12/13 at Mount Gambier. It's the Queen's birthday weekend as usual. Andrew VK5KET is getting ready for the Australian Foxhunting Championship and the convention committee are planning a similar programme to past events. Things may change due to Covid-19 but at this stage with the vaccine rollout and the good work of health officials we are optimistic of a successful event. Now might be a good time to book accommodation. See you there. Thanks John, of course he is referring to the VK5 Holiday weekend for the Queens Birthday which on that date is NOT celebrated on Norfolk, Cocos and Keeling Islands, Christmas Island, VK4 Qld nor VK6 WA. VK3 - ROSEBUD RadioFest by SPARC 9:30am Nov 14 (vk3pdg) Reception Reports WIA News rebroadcasters often give Short Wave Listeners a welcome to the broadcast as they commence call-backs straight after the Local News. Local news follows National news in all states. It would be great if those SWL's would email their reception reports and location to callbacks@wia.org.au Submitting news items If you would like to submit news items for possible inclusion in the VK1WIA broadcasts, please email your item in text to nationalnews@wia.org.au and don't JUST send url's links or posters, but take the time to pen YOUR contribution. To submit audio, email nationalnews@wia.org.au and send BOTH the audio and the text We would appreciate items certainly no longer than 1.5 mts in length as we only have a half hour. Remember the sooner you submit material the more the likelihood of it being broadcast in the very next edition of WIA National News. Each item will only be broadcast once, if you want a couple of mentions, please submit different slants to keep your event 'fresh' and always if the news room is to read your item --- write it in the 3rd person. (First if YOU are reading your own item) A reminder when supplying HamFest info we obviously can't plug DEALS from commercial traders "on air", but we at the WIA will put your supporters 'goods' in this text edition "no worries." We cannot give blatant 'plugs' to raffles. ------------------------------------------------------------* Oh... and to contact us with your news because If It Matters To You It Matters To Us! Click the links below to download the most recent edition of National News, BUT this is ONLY the backup site! WIANEWS backup thanks to Brendan VK4BLP can be found on wiaq.org.au BACKUPS OF THE BACKUP!! thanks to Tony VK7AX www.vk7ax.id.au/wianews/ wia.org.au/members/broadcast/wianews/ (This is the link to the original text version and original audio on wia site) ------------------------------------------------------------* WIANews - we've reported...YOU decide. TWITTER twitter.com/VK1WIA Societies and Club News Letter Editors can EXCHANGE a feed prior to the actual broadcast date, e-mail nationalnews@wia.org.au Call-backs follow the RF editions, but also for text readers you may lodge a quick reply to let us know you read it, who knows, you might even get a "cheerio call". Thanks to our dedicated band of broadcast volunteers who utilize their time and equipment in bringing you this weekly broadcast. Who and where are they? wia.org.au/members/broadcast/where/ The purpose of "WIANews" is to rapidly provide news of interest to WIA affiliated clubs and active amateurs residing in Australia and the globe. We strongly encourage membership in the Wireless Institute of Australia and participation in the activities of local clubs. Opinions expressed in "WIANews" are those of the writers who submit material and do not necessarily reflect those of the rebroadcasters, nor the National WIA, but IF broadcast, are done so in the spirit in which they were submitted." Material may be reproduced in whole or in part, in any form, a credit to WIANews wouldn't go astray... If you would like to see the call-backs reported each broadcast, OR have call-backs to contribute to the National News call back tally then please send through your call-backs to callbacks@wia.org.au How do I join this National News List? (subscribe for an automatic weekly feed.) Email to vk1wia-news-join@lists.wia.org.au from the email account that you wish the emails to go to. How do I leave this National News List? (unsubscribe your weekly feed) Open mail program which sends mail from the address you want to unsubscribe from. Send unsubscribe to the list unsubscribe address vk1wia-news-leave@lists.wia.org.au You will be sent a confirmation mail and must follow the instructions given in that mail to complete the unsubscription. Once your unsubscription has been processed, you will probably receive a message confirming your unsubscription from the list and at that point you should stop receiving messages. ------------------------------------------------------------*